That's a misunderstanding: I am not saying there's nothing wrong with what is happening (and my personal beliefs are very much to the contrary). My point is rather than much of the criticism of tech seems to be a criticism of capitalism. So if you want to have a debate about inner cities, poverty, etc, by all means, let's have it, but it's not a tech phenomenon.

Many of us in SF would like to PREVENT this city from turning into a place like NYC. Yes... there is a problem with capitalism (or, more accurately, with unfettered "market driven" capitalism). But there are two other problems which you ignore. First - in the Bay Area the problem isn't just capitalism, it's also the behaviors of those working in startups. These behaviors make startups in particular (and tech in general) a very (VERY) easy target. Second - do we want homogeneity in our lives? Do we want SF to be just like NYC? Is there something different and special about SF that deserves preservation?

Thanks for this addendum.

Yes, the premise was built on some generalization. Not "everyone" was courted by Wall Street 10 years ago, just as not "everyone" is trying to get into tech these days (though I would argue that from certain points of view both feel that way).

I am aware that these narratives don't represent the typical American experience and should have made that clearer.

Thanks for reading and responding.

Yep. This wasn't exactly an essay, just some thoughts around a "trend" I picked up on (ie the backlash). I could write a whole separate article about the NSA but I let Carr's article speak for itself. The reason for including it was that the NSA disclosures put a different light on the tech vs society question. But yea, it could have been more developed.

It just seemed like a lazy attempt to somehow slur those kooky libertarians, god bless 'em!

Guilt by a vague association:

* Some libertarians live in the Bay Area

* Some people in the Bay Area worked on projects, companies and systems being exploited by the NSA

* Therefore ... wait, huh?

If you read the Carr article, you might see that these associations are much less tenuous than you suggest.

Thanks, fixed it

Absolutely agreed! Some of the language being thrown around many companies can be nauseating.

I didn't write about this possibility in the article, but there's also a universe of apps/tools/companies which do seemingly trivial things that don't transform anything on the face value and eventually end up being rather impactful. Take Twitter: for the first X years, many people dismissed it as that stupid thing where you write about what you had for breakfast.

Now it's basically a media company. Granted, no lives saved, but a major player in the landscape.

Point being: you can end up doing something truly revolutionary in the end by doing something trivial and useful at first. A better way to order pizza could become a better way to do [something that doesn't sound as banal].

(I would also posit that this kind of serendipity doesn't necessarily make you a visionary.)

I certainly think it is possible to be doing something "ordinary" and end up having it be something revolutionary at the end. It happens with some degree of frequency.

I just don't think a given location and a few keywords let you claim the revolutionary bit beforehand :)

I actually think there were people who got Twitter from the early days. Mostly people who had studied social network and online communities in the early '00, when everyone was making them. It just wasn't necessarily interesting from a technical or business perspective until much later.

Nice article.

Zack, you say pick a language "Ruby or Python". I started out in PHP (I have no recollection why) and while I'm far from perfect, I know it well enough to build functioning things and more importantly to figure where to find answers when I'm stuck.

Yet whenever I read other people's writing about coding, almost without fail people say "PHP sucks, do Python" or "PHP sucks, learn Ruby".

Without getting into the arguments about which language is better (I am fairly aware of the differences), can people who have experience with all three opine on whether it makes sense to throw out the time and energy I have invested in PHP (not to mention lot of well functioning code) and start from scratch with one of the other two?

Two answers for your one question: no, it absolutely doesn't make sense to throw out the time and energy you have invested in PHP, but yes, it absolutely does make sense to start from scratch with one of the other two. Both in fact, and any others that you come across. The more the merrier! Programming languages don't take up mutually exclusive niches in your brain, they complement one another.

That's a great response - thanks!

At the risk of stating the obvious, big companies overpay for deals all the time especially when there is some perceived intangible benefit to be accrued. Alas.

I'm still waiting for the perfect app to have with my husband so that we can share to-dos and import/export calendar items and get notifications on the phone/desktop. Something that an app like Pair should be a perfect home for but they don't really focus on that.

Interesting. I started thinking about a to-do app specifically for families as I was writing this post. I need to think more on that topic. There's probably something there...

I find that priority matrix works pretty well with its quadrant system. Works best for families of 4 or less!